Virtuality Builder II: on the topic of 3D interaction
Jean‐Francis Balaguer, Enrico Gobbetti · 1993
Most of today's user interfaces for 3D graphics systems still predominantly use 2D widgets, even though current graphical hardware should make it possible to create applications in which the user directly manipulates aspects of three-dimensional synthetic worlds. The difficulties associated with achieving the key goal of immersion has led the research in virtual environments to concentrate far more on the development of new input and display devices than on higher-level techniques for 3D interaction. It is only recently that interaction with synthetic worlds has tried to go beyond straightforward interpretation of physical device data (NSF 1992), (Balaguer and Mangili 1992). The design space for 3D interaction tools and techniques remains mostly unexplored, while being far larger than in standard 2D applications. Moreover, as stated by Myers, "the only reliable way to generate quality interfaces is to test prototypes with users and modify the design based on their comments" (Myers 1989, p 15). 15). The creation of complex interactive applications is an inherently iterative process that requires user interface tools, such as toolkits or frameworks.